Researchers have been able to use an analysis of ancient rock crystals – and the magnetism records locked inside them – to trace back the history of Earth’s inner core across hundreds of millions of years. Earth’s core, a dense hot blob of iron and nickel, is actually made up of two layers – the
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Pollination is the trademark of flowering plants, with animal pollinators such as bees and birds sustaining the world’s food supplies – not to mention our cravings for coffee, honey, and macadamia nuts. But new research raises the possibility that animal-assisted pollination may have emerged in the sea, long before plants moved ashore. The study, conducted by
In 2016, the Curiosity rover came across something really peculiar in Gale Crater on Mars. On the slope of Mount Sharp, where Curiosity labored, were large quantities of a rare mineral; rare, at least, here on Earth. Tridymite, a form of quartz, only seems to form extremely seldom, and under high temperatures, such as those
When mechanical engineering graduate student Faye Yap saw a dead spider curled up in the hallway, it got her thinking about whether it could be used as a robotics component. Turning dead spiders into mechanical grippers may be some people’s idea of a nightmare scenario, but it could have tangible benefits. Spider legs can grip
Not all stars are happy to just hang around, orbiting the galactic center with all the other stars. Some stars go rogue, punted out across the Milky Way with significant force. These are the runaway stars, and we can trace their trajectories to understand violent events that can take place in the Universe. One such
While studying diamonds inside an ancient meteorite, scientists have found a strange, interwoven microscopic structure that has never been seen before. The structure, an interlocking form of graphite and diamond, has unique properties that could one day be used to develop super-fast charging or new types of electronics, researchers say. The diamond structures were locked
When the history of the rise of the robots is written, perhaps this might feature in the opening chapter: a seven-year-old boy has had his finger broken by a robotic opponent during a chess match in Moscow. There’s some debate about exactly what happened, but it seems that the youngster took a move faster than
Given its similarities to its neighbor, Saturn, it seems natural to ask why Jupiter doesn’t also have a magnificent, extensive system of visible rings. Alas, it’s not the reality. While Jupiter does have rings, they’re thin, tenuous, flimsy things of dust, visible only when back-lit by the Sun. According to new research, these discount rings
Amber Heard has one of the world’s most beautiful faces – that is, according to cosmetic surgeon Julian De Silva. The claim has been recycled for some years now, and recently resurfaced in the wake of Heard’s (widely reported) trial with ex-husband Johnny Depp. But what is this claim based on? Well, according to De
NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts is famous for supporting outlandish ideas in the astronomy and space exploration fields. Since being re-established in 2011, the institute has supported a wide variety of projects as part of its three-phase program. However, so far, only three projects have gone on to receive Phase III funding. And one of
Conspiracy theories are hardly a modern affliction: think of the JFK assassination or the long history of UFO sightings. Yet the internet is often said to have ushered in a ‘post-truth’ era, with social media, in particular, allowing for the spread of viral misinformation. Whether or not that’s actually true is another matter, and it’s
There’s something curious in the blood of black bears that allows them to hibernate for seven months a year while still remaining fit and healthy. Scientists aren’t sure what that something is, but a new study has helped close in on the mystery. If we humans tried to lie dormant for as long as a
Have you heard of LU Camelopardalis, QZ Serpentis, V1007 Herculis, and BK Lyncis? No, they’re not members of a boy band in ancient Rome. They’re Cataclysmic Variables, binary stars that are so close together one star draws material from its sibling. This causes the pair to vary wildly in brightness. Can planets exist in this
The fungus Entomophthora muscae has a survival strategy that’s both fascinating and potentially going to put you off your next meal: it infects and ‘zombifies’ female houseflies before sending out irresistible chemical signals encouraging male houseflies into necrophilia. By luring these male flies into mating with zombified females, the fungus can transfer to the male fly
From sniffing out diabetes, cancers and positive COVID-19 cases to being disgustingly interested in poop, we all know dogs have a mighty powerful sense of smell. Yet researchers were surprised to see the sheer extent of the smell wiring within dog brains. Veterinary neuroimaging researcher Erica Andrews of Cornell University and colleagues have just mapped domestic dogs’
There’s something very odd about this image from the Hubble Space Telescope. If you look closely, you can see two almost-mirror image, orange-colored galaxies, seemingly connected by a long filament. Fascinatingly, that’s not two galaxies at all, but one, named SGAS J143845+145407. It just appears to be two, thanks to the way the gravity of
Plants can go to extraordinary lengths to tempt pollinators to do their bidding. From donning female insect disguises (complete with pheromones!) to lure lustful males, oozing the stench of rotting flesh to temp hungry flies, or, most commonly, offering bribes of sweet rewards for any who visits – no lengths are too gross or pricy
A team of physicists has used a pair of vibrating rods to measure the gravitational constant to incredibly fine precision. While the new technique has relatively high uncertainty, they hope that future improvements will provide a new pathway to nailing down this elusive constant. The gravitational constant, denoted as G, is the fundamental building block
When you’re barely the size of an eyelash and on the hunt for fast-moving prey, having a bear trap strapped to your head might seem like a good idea. Of course, it’s all fun and games until it actually goes off. Even the slightest wobble in that trap’s arc could send your face on a
The biggest known canyon in the Solar System is getting the star treatment in new images from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter. As it whooshed by in Martian orbit, the spacecraft captured a pair of gouges in the planet’s surface that make up part of the Valles Marineris, a system of canyons known
Microbes are the smallest known living organisms on Earth and can be found just about everywhere, even in the cold, Mars-like conditions of lava caves. On the island of Hawai’i, scientists recently found a marvelous assortment of novel microbes thriving in geothermal caves, lava tubes, and volcanic vents. These underground structures were formed 65 and 800
A digital twin is a copy of a person, product, or process that is created using data. This might sound like science fiction, but some have claimed that you will likely have a digital double within the next decade. As a copy of a person, a digital twin would – ideally – make the same
It hasn’t even been a fortnight since the first image release, and the James Webb Space Telescope is just continuously knocking all our socks off. Only a few images have been officially released, but that hasn’t stopped citizen scientists digging through the raw data to see what they can find. One of those is Judy
A mysterious mummy of an ancient Egypt woman, who may have been pregnant when she died, likely also had cancer, according to researchers. Deformities in the mummy’s skull suggest a sizable tumor behind the left eye, but further tests are required to confirm that the tumor was cancerous. The unusual mummy, who has been
Earth’s deepest sources of water may not be as old as we once assumed. Based on samples taken from deep below the Colorado Plateau, the briny remnants of ancient seas that make up the base of many groundwater systems might not be so perfectly isolated from the world above. When researchers attempted to date the region’s Paradox
The Sun’s glare is the main reason telescopes tend to look outwards from Earth, away from the center of our Solar System. New research reveals that for telescopic surveys prepared to peer in the other direction, there’s lots to be found. In particular, recent surveys are revealing near-Earth objects or NEOs, including asteroids we’ve never
Colonies of ants can act a lot like neural networks, new research has revealed, with groups of the insects weighing up both external inputs and internal principles when making decisions about what to do as a collective. In this particular study, the team behind it looked at when and how ant colonies evacuated their nests
Approximately 365 million years ago, one group of fishes left the water to live on land. These animals were early tetrapods, a lineage that would radiate to include many thousands of species including amphibians, birds, lizards and mammals. Human beings are descendants of those early tetrapods, and we share the legacy of their water-to-land transition.
Penguins are no strangers to climate change. Their life history has been shaped by rising and falling temperatures, and their bodies are highly specialized for some of Earth’s most extreme conditions. And yet, scientists are concerned the evolutionary path of the penguin may be grinding to a halt, thanks to what appears to be the
It looks a bit like neon artwork from the ’80s. But what the image above really shows is much, much cooler. It’s a star, and the first light image captured by the newest instrument on the Gemini South telescope, the Gemini High-resolution Optical SpecTrograph, or GHOST. What it shows is the entire optical spectrum of
Just a week after its first images were shown to the world, the James Webb Space Telescope may have found a galaxy that existed 13.5 billion years ago, a scientist who analyzed the data said Wednesday. Known as GLASS-z13, the galaxy dates back to 300 million years after the Big Bang, about 100 million years
Solar winds from the snapping of a gigantic “canyon of fire” filament on the Sun are set to slam into the Earth today (20 July) or tomorrow (21 July), triggering a weak G1 geomagnetic storm. Sun watchers first spotted solar filaments as dark, thread-like lines against the Sun’s bright background on 12 July, according to SpaceWeather.com. Then, on
Every five years, the Australian government releases a comprehensive report on the state of the nation’s environment, put together by a panel of independent scientists. The latest report, released this week, was long overdue and was always expected to be a doozy. In the past five years, severe coral bleaching events have whitened a third of
As the first dinosaurs were finding their feet around 230 million years ago, the ancestors of modern mammals were also emerging. Somewhere along the way they developed a remarkable ability: to generate their own warmth. This decisive evolutionary step towards endothermy – the ability to generate heat from within and keep a near-constant core body temperature even when
A new phase of matter has been observed in a quantum computer after physicists pulsed light on its qubits in a pattern inspired by the Fibonacci sequence. If you think that’s mind-boggling, this weird quirk of quantum mechanics behaves as though it has two time dimensions, instead of one; a trait that scientists say makes the qubits
Beneath the Andes mountains in South America, Earth’s crust is dripping into the planet’s interior. Moreover, this has been occurring for millions of years – a long geological process that has produced telltale wrinkling and other features on the surface that scientists have discerned through modeling and experimentation. This might help us identify interior geological
Rare deep-sea brine pools discovered in the Red Sea may hold clues to environmental upheavals in the region that span millennia, and could even shed light on the origins of life on Earth, a new study finds. Deep-sea brine pools are extraordinarily salty or “hypersaline” lakes that form on the seafloor. They are among the
The UK has provisionally recorded its highest ever temperature on Tuesday: 102.4 °F (40.2 °C). It was the first time the UK recorded a temperature over 102 °F (40 °C) per the Met Office, the official weather organization in Britain. The reading was taken around London’s Heathrow Airport just before 1pm local time. Temperatures were forecast
It might surprise you to know that even during the depths of sleep, your brain cycles through brief bouts of wakefulness. These ‘micro-arousals’, as they are known, are too short to be remembered the next morning, but together they could help your brain consolidate your memories from the day before. Among sleeping mice, researchers publishing in
It has been an exciting week with the release of breathtaking photos of our Universe by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Images such as the one below give us a chance to see faint distant galaxies as they were more than 13 billion years ago. It’s the perfect time to step back and appreciate
For more than 100 years, paleontologists have thought that a fossil discovered in South Australia was a powerful grave eagle (Taphaetus lacertosus). Now, new research has revealed its true taxonomy: it’s a vulture, and it’s the first one discovered in the country. The fossil is that of a Cryptogyps lacertosus (meaning powerful hidden vulture) and this
Researchers have peered back through 800 years of history to conclude that Mayapan – the capital of culture and politics for the Maya people of the Yucatán Peninsula in the 13th and 14th century CE – may well have been undone by drought. That drought would have led to civil conflict, which would, in turn,
Some of the brightest, most energetic objects in the Universe are the mystery source of high-energy cosmic neutrinos, new research has confirmed. A comprehensive analysis has pretty conclusively linked galaxies hosting blazing nuclei known as blazars with these enigmatic particles. It’s a result that provides a really unexpected solution to a problem that has had
The oceans are full of magical marine life that have spawned ecosystems brimming with biodiversity. Corals, which come in all shapes, sizes and colors, are no exception. Some species even glow in the dark. Now a team of Israeli scientists have figured out why that might be so. With glowing green and yellow tentacles, deep-reef
A massive field of hydrothermal vents on the seafloor in the dark depths of the East Pacific ocean is the hottest and largest discovered in the region yet. Not only that, but it’s in a place scientists didn’t expect to find active vents, never mind an entire system of them, hundreds of meters from the
We often think of babies as blank canvases with little ability to learn during the first few weeks of life. But babies actually start processing language and speech incredibly early. Even while in the womb, they learn to discern voices, along with some speech sounds. At birth, they already prefer speech sounds over other types
Here’s the best evidence I’ve ever seen for water on Mars: NASA’s Perseverance rover came across a tangled mess of string on Mars, which looks like snarled fishing line left behind by a frustrated angler. Where there’s fishing, there’s gotta be water, right? Actually, this tiny piece of trash is likely something left over from
A small black hole that’s just hanging around, quietly minding its own business, has been detected outside the Milky Way galaxy. This, the team says, marks the first time that we’ve been able to conclusively detect and identify an inactive black hole that isn’t within the confines of our own galaxy. While a similar discovery
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